Rurik was going to start a war on the island of Bornholm, it was a war and it was not a war.
His request surprised everyone.
What does it mean to subjugate the enemy without fighting? As long as the army is driven over, the local fishermen will surrender obediently? Is there such a good thing?
Arik, Spuyut, Medved and others all felt it was unreliable.
As a guest, Ragnar felt that this possibility existed, but when he landed on the island to negotiate with those people, the islanders quickly pulled out an army and prepared to fight.
He naturally informed Rurik of this news and asked Prince Rus to think about it carefully.
"Your warning is very important, so I must be prepared with both hands. It is best to use force to intimidate them into surrendering. If they choose war, then let's fight! I default that they are a whole and a strong army. Obviously they are not So. I will respect their strength for the time being, and I will naturally use the strength of the Ross Navy."
Rurik ordered to assemble an army to launch an expedition. Now is the slack period in midsummer, so mobilizing an army of one thousand people is not a problem.
One thousand people is neither too much nor too small, but such a scale cannot demonstrate Ross's military power.
But Rurik planned to send out all the main ships of the Russian Navy. First, the "Eighty-Eight Fleet" would be assembled brazenly, and twenty standard armed cargo ships (including fishing boats) would be assembled to accompany them.
If they just assemble the "Eighty-Eight Fleet" and rush over, they are probably just going to fight.
When he announced that there were twenty more cargo ships, some smart people had already guessed the prince's other intentions.
Because those so-called cargo ships are indeed cargo ships, but they also retain the mechanism of dropping the trawl net and manually winching the net.
Naturally, light and surprisingly tough materials such as nylon did not exist in this era, and fishing nets were all woven from linen. Such nets can be made very large, making trawling possible. Of course, its realization is based on the large-scale acquisition of flax fiber. Now that Ross has opened up the flax planting area around Lake Ilmen, the flax resources that were rarely obtained in the past are now quite sufficient. The large-scale production of cables and fishing nets is the local Slavic Wage-earning jobs for women.
Although there is no high technology like sonar, even a large sailing ship dragging a large net through the sea can still catch a lot of delicious herring.
Even though the fishing nets need to be repaired on a large scale after each voyage, the cost of repairing the nets is very little compared to making a profit.
Because the dimensions of the Boros Sea span much higher than that of the Mediterranean Sea. What's more, the Mediterranean Sea is blessed with a Mediterranean climate, which makes the climate on the north and south sides of the sea similar. The temperature and nutrients of the sea water are also unified across a wide range of areas.
The conditions in the Baltic Sea are different, especially in summer. There is a big hydrological gap between the Gulf of Bothnia in the north and the Pan-Denmark Strait in the south.
Given a choice, herring schools prefer to head toward warmer waters.
In midsummer, the sea water in the Gulf of Bothnia in the Russian homeland is only 10°C, the warmer Gulf of Finland waters rise to 15°C, and the waters of the Denmark Strait have exceeded 20°C. Such high hydrology is naturally due to the warm Atlantic current and the angle of the sun. A large amount of nutrients from the Atlantic are poured directly into the Baltic Sea along the strait, creating a nutrient zone in the entire Denmark Strait.
Although the various Viking tribes don't quite understand the reason, they make a living by fishing, and through years of experience they know which sea areas and when are good times to fish.
The Western Baltic Sea has the most abundant fishery resources in the entire sea. Giant herrings as long as a man's forearm can be caught there, and beluga whales, minke whales and a large number of seals can also be hunted.
The news revealed by the visiting Danes made the people of the Rus' Principality begin to imagine great possibilities.
Rurik's decision undoubtedly followed the idea of "expanding the fishery economic zone".
Bornholm Island happens to be within this rich fishery area. In the past, the Russians had no chance to plunder, but now they have an opportunity.
The military meeting ended, Rurik gave some orders and led everyone to separate and prepare.
Arik's task was to assemble the first flag team. Although the soldiers had already dispersed to fish, they should try to gather as many as three hundred people now.
The Slavic flag force was also mobilized, and at least two hundred men who were extremely unlikely to get seasick had to be selected to board the ship.
All the boys among the young men of the Sixth Banner stopped going to school and took up arms to join the action, thus adding nearly two hundred men.
One hundred men were selected from the prince's bodyguard to take part in the operation.
As for the remaining three hundred men, the problem can be better solved by recruiting warriors from the surrendered tribes, such as the Vips and Ludi people. These two families are more likely to make up the number, but Rurik has thought about it. , a group of fresh troops came from the Suomi people.
What Rurik calls a thousand people is just a thousand people from the Principality of Rus. Ragnar will naturally bring his brothers to join in as allies. That is their own business. How many troops they send is also Ragnar's. own meaning.
Expedition mobilization orders began to be issued and the troops began to assemble!
The information about who the war is against, the purpose of the war, and how the war is conducted are all issued in the form of paper documents.
The villagers around Lake Ilmen all knew about the war, but the war had nothing to do with them. If anyone was beginning to worry, it was the estate owners. They sent their youngest sons to serve as cavalry in the Kingdom of Rus. It was not a big problem for the cavalry to attack the rugged remnants of Karelia in winter, but the new war was clearly a battle between the principality and another group of Varangians. This is clearly a civil war among the Varangians! It's a duel between the strong! Wouldn't it be like asking for death if his son joins in the fun?
Can the cavalry still run on the sea? Didn’t those war horses take off their saddles one after another to breed foals?
The conscription order issued by Rurik did involve the younger sons of the manor owners who had become cavalry. All cavalry would participate in the battle as infantry, including ten Pechenegs. The precious cavalry are extremely valuable even if they are dismounted in battle, and they should be used as archers to provide support.
The prince also ordered that the army should complete the strategic assembly on Tombstone Island, and the assembly must be completed within the first three days of July.
The order came suddenly, and the messenger boat headed towards Roseburg's hometown as quickly as possible, but could not bring the northern troops over at the agreed time. The essence of the principality has been moved to the east for several years, and Rurik mobilized the power of the east.
According to his assumptions, the Russian army and the Danish Allied Army, together with the professional sailors operating the ships, would total 1,400 people, and they would be divided into as many as 36 large ships, evenly divided to the actual number of each ship. Seems like a waste of space.
In fact, this is not the case. Each of the twenty standard armed cargo ships carries a huge trawl net, and the people on board are also a group of fishermen. Rurik signed fishing agreements with some tribesmen in his early years. They rented the prince's boats to fish and became a special kind of tenant farmers. Now the broken fishing boats have been replaced by standard cargo ships/fishing boats. There are twenty broken ships, and there are still twenty new ships. They have replaced their guns with cannons. Now they must fulfill their contract and go fishing in the southern waters under the escort of warships. A fishing boat is controlled by a family, and as long as some soldiers are added, it can be a good combat unit.
Most of the soldiers had to stay on the sixteen battleships, and some of them stayed on the armed cargo ships with bows and arrows.
The large ships stationed at Lake Ilmen entered Lake Ladoga one after another along the rushing Volkhov River, and then entered the Neva River, first gathering at the estuary anchorage.
The date of the expedition was quite close to that of the summer priests, so Rurik decided to set the departure date on June 28th for the summer sacrifices.
But a strange situation happened that left him speechless!
A majestic big shark cruises the ocean, often accompanied by a group of seal fish to join in the fun and take advantage.
The fact that the expedition to Bornholm Island was actually a threat of force to force them to surrender has been posted on the bulletin board of Harvest Square with a public document. The entire people of New Roseburg know the prince's determination. There are many smart people in this city. An opportunity to go fishing in the southwest sea is presented to you. Why not take advantage of it?
In Viking society, fish and wheat were both staple foods. Most coastal tribes did not have the ability to produce wheat, and their lives were basically tied to fishing. New Roseburg attracted people from all walks of life to trade here, and the expansion of the population also gave birth to a variety of industries.
Not only the official large-scale shipyards, because there are more orders only in densely populated areas, the shipbuilders from Mälaren and Old Ross are not idle, although their skills are still limited to building traditional rowing long boats. Get the same orders. Because it’s not just locals who place orders, but also Finnish Suomi people.
Today, fishing boats across the Gulf of Finland fly the flag of Rus. Finns, who were once incompetent and cautious, now fish in the ocean with dignity.
A group of wealthy Finnish people began to upgrade their boats. Their canoes were replaced by Viking longships, which also triggered their crazier fishing ambitions. Javlo, who was naturally the canonized ruler of Finland, was also able to organize a very traditional Viking fleet and realize the sea life just like the most traditional Vikings. If there is a group of people who have a ship that looks like a Viking longship, dress like a Viking, have weapons that look like a Viking, and speak Norse, then they are Vikings. Now Jevlo can organize such a team. They are a group of "short black-haired" Vikings.
Even though the salinity of the seawater in the Gulf of Finland is low, the cost of producing salt is indeed high. Naturally, trying to make money by selling salt cannot compete with the Balmok people in Narvik Port who transport good salt. If salt is only made for personal use, the situation is completely different.
Salt is a necessity, not only because people need to eat it, but also because it is the most cost-effective medium for preserving the freshness of meat.
People have reached a consensus that the southwest Baltic Sea has the best fishery resources in the entire sea area. It is rumored that the total amount of herring there is ten to twenty times that of the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia, and several times stronger than the waters of Gotland. It seems that as long as you rush to the Danish waters to catch fish, you will definitely have a bumper harvest. So the biggest problem is how to get the fish back!
It's the end of June now, and although the temperature is pleasant, winter is not far away. Snow will fall as early as October in the Julian calendar. As long as there is the first snow, the remaining days will become colder day by day. Then when the great sacrifices in midsummer are over, smart families have to make salted fish meat to prepare for the winter. Although the principality now has abundant food supplies, it would be foolish to rely entirely on eating wheat!
Smart people must be prepared with both hands, because a large number of people do not have land in their hands, and it is unreliable to buy food with money. The only way to catch fish is to firmly grasp it in their own hands.
Rurik was in New Roseburg, looking at the construction of the third floor of the palace, and he felt extremely comfortable.
Since a large number of people are ready to bring their own dry food, weapons, and ships to accompany the army on the expedition, or to follow the army's unnecessary raids on Danish fisheries, why should there be any obstruction? On the contrary, this is a good thing. As the prince, Rurik publicly announced his strong support.
All the salt in the New Roseburg market has been bought, and Rurik himself is the big buyer.
While the Balmoks who transported salt made a fortune, the locals who boiled salt at extremely high costs also expanded their production, which in turn also boosted the business of charcoal kilns and clay maniacs in the region.
However, Rurik did not bring much food with him on this trip, which seemed to be an unusual expedition.
He had already made up his mind. Since the expedition to force the islanders of Bornholm to surrender through force was actually developed into a "herring plundering campaign" by the people of the principality, the army should follow the will of the people and mainly rely on abundant fish catches. For food.
Cut off the head and tail of a herring and disembowel it. The size of the herring doesn't matter, both men and women can stuff it into their mouths, chew it and swallow it. This is also the most traditional and purest way for the Vikings to eat herring.
What to do if you don’t have enough salt to marinate fish?
Just process the fresh fish and dry it directly in the sea breeze, or roast it into jerky by the campfire. As long as the dried fish becomes dry and hard and survives the remaining three months into winter, everything will be fine.
Rurik personally participated in the summer solstice sacrifices, and the fleet set sail on the same day.
Most of the main force of the principality's fleet was assembled at the anchorage at the mouth of the Neva River, which Rurik called the Kronshtadt anchorage. It is because there is a Kotlin Island across the depths of the bay that the impact of high and low tides on New Roseburg is much less. Rurik didn't have the ability. If he could, he would build a long and narrow breakwater along the trend of the sandbar, turning the anchorage into relatively still water. However, this project was not completed until 2019 in another dimension.
Any seaside city will face the problem of tide erosion. Fortunately, Novosibirsk is a short distance from the mouth of the Neva River, and there are also a number of sandbanks to protect it.
A large number of boats finished their fishing work for the day and deliberately ran aground on the Neva River channel area, thus perfectly avoiding the erosion of the tide. The fishermen then dried and mended their nets on the shore and repaired their boats at the same time.
Every day there are always boats out fishing, and there are always a number of boats repairing.
Now, the once bustling river beach is suddenly deserted, and instead the berth where large ships are parked is bustling with activity.
People from all walks of life are determined to join in the fun, and businessmen from all walks of life have their own agendas.
In principle, everyone has no good opinion of the Danes, but now that they have the opportunity to plunder the fishery, they should not let it go. Many people simply don't intend to really catch fish. Since there are royal pirates for princes, why can't other brothers become free pirates themselves? Invading the Danish sea and plundering ships that do not fly the Russian flag, even if the Danes launch protection, the brothers will still have the Principality's fleet to protect them, right?
The flagship Aurora has been repaired several times. She has been in warm Atlantic waters, so barnacles were found attached to the bottom of the ship. The barnacles were cleared and the hull planks were partially replaced. She is already a hard-working veteran, and now she is still serving as the flagship, but she is no longer the most combat-effective ship.
Rurik sat on the flagship, seemingly bidding farewell to his hometown elders, but a group of "eldermen" followed closely behind him.
How many rowing long boats followed? I'm afraid there are only a hundred ships!
He stood on the stern deck, made a visual inspection and took a brief inventory, and sighed that the number should exceed 100!
The fact is that as many as 1,500 people brought their own boats to join the gang. Whether they brought fishing nets or simple fishing rods, they wanted to go deep into Danish waters to plunder. These long rowing ships have all been replaced with triangular sails, which have become the most distinctive feature that distinguishes them from Danish ships, and the white flag of Ross with blue stripes flying on the mast is a straightforward proof of identity.
On the surface, Rurik will lead an expedition with an army of 1,400 people, but in fact there is a reserve army of 1,500 people behind him.
Is this all?
When the fleet entered the port of Helminki and Javlo learned about the expedition, the new force from Finland was not only the 200 men led by Javlo himself, but also the following thirty longships. More than a hundred Finnish fishermen.
But when this mixed fleet entered Tombstone Island for supplies, they simply attracted a group of Swedes to join them.
It was already the last day stipulated by Rurik. The arrival of the mighty army shocked the merchants and they didn't know what was going on. When they learned that the Prince of Rus was planning to use force in the Danish waters, things became even more subtle.
The merchants were no longer interested in doing business, so they might as well control their ships and follow the Ross fleet to try their luck in the southern waters.
Therefore, from the perspective of Swinde, the messenger and speaker, his whole person collapsed. Maybe this is fate! The Rus organized a fleet of ships as large as he had ever seen, perhaps five thousand strong, and rushed towards Bornholm.
The islanders have no power to resist at all, and the number of people on the entire island is probably not as large as this fleet. If the Prince of Ross is willing, he can obviously go to Denmark and chop off the head of the Danish King.
But Prince Rurik seemed to have no intention of doing so.
The huge fleet has already headed south, and its next destination is Saaremaa Island.
Now that things have turned out like this, Rurik felt that the old pirates on Saaremaa Island were also idle and ordered them to push their longships into the sea. Just join this opportunity as soon as possible.
…
A large fleet suddenly appeared on the Rus' Tombstone Island, and the Rus' Principality almost sent out all its troops to rush into Danish waters. Is this provoking a war against Denmark?
When the news reached the ears of King Bjorn of Sweden, the information was seriously distorted.
He was a little annoyed that he was not the commander of this army. He wanted to send troops to show that they were still allies. Since they had gone south, forget it.
Tombstone Island has become increasingly prosperous in recent years, and the Rus' independent trade routes have eclipsed their own port of Birka. Although the trade economy of Lake Malaren is centered on the Port of Birka, the market size cannot be compared with that of Ross.
Envy breeds jealousy, and jealousy breeds hatred. An evil thought flashed through his mind and was immediately rejected: "Perhaps I can sneak attack while they are empty? Oh! No! If I do this, other tribes will not help me, and the Melalen people are basically enemies. But the Russians have to settle their accounts afterwards.”
He had no choice but to give up and continue to live his peaceful life. But the Ross people had to guard against it, because he could not guarantee that the increasingly powerful Ross would not have a strong interest in controlling Sweden.
This problem is inherently troublesome. The Russians have always owned taverns in Birka and openly sold ironware and other supplies. Every year they also use silver coins to buy supplies. Every year, you can hear rumors of some people leaving the lake and immigrating to Ross.
However, Bjorn, the king, is just a leader. His power comes from usurping the throne, and he only gets the nominal recognition from other tribes.
It seemed that he could only watch the huge Lake Mälaren being sucked away in wealth and population by the Principality of Ross.
He was really helpless.
